The Tarrasch Defence is one of the most ambitious ways to play against 1.d4. Black immediately fights for the centre, gets a lot of space and develops his pieces without many problems. Great fighters like Boris Spassky, Paul Keres and Garry Kasparov have played the Tarrasch Defence.

Former Russian Champion Alexey Bezgodov has more than 30 years of experience with the Tarrasch and is one of the world’s greatest experts. The Art of the Tarrasch Defence is a deeply researched journey into the positional structures, the key moments in the fight for the initiative, the players and the variations.

Bezgodov has injected his main line, the neglected Kasparov System, with a lot of surprising ideas and presents new ways to handle White’s offbeat variations. He also shows that quite a few lines for Black with a bad reputation are actually good. He teaches how the giants of chess have exploited the many dynamic possibilities of the Tarrasch Defence, and he includes plenty of practical exercises.

This is a must-have book for fearless players who wish to surprise their opponents and who like to play aggressively with Black -- but only with a reliable opening with a sound positional foundation.

PRAISE FOR ALEXEY BEZGODOV

Dennis Monokroussos, The Chess Mind, on The Extreme Caro-Kann:"Aggressive players looking for something fresh and fighting against the Caro-Kann may find this book just what they wanted, while Caro-Kann aficionados may want this book for the purpose of self-defense." Uwe Bekemann, German Correspondence Chess Federation, on The Liberated Bishop’s Defence:"Truly enriches the world of openings. The reader gets a well-constructed repertoire for Black, which is being presented in a way that is easy to understand."

Grandmaster Alexey Bezgodov (1969) was Russian Champion in 1993. He is the author of The Extreme Caro-Kann, The Liberated Bishop’s Defence and The Double Queens Gambit, three highly original chess opening books.

Michael Mkpadi, ChessHot:“A goldmine of resource (..) I wholeheartedly recommend this book if you, like me, have struggled to find an opening which is solid, has rarely played lines and has a brilliantly written book to guide you.”

Elburg Chess Reviews: "A high quality opening book with excellent explanations of strategies and techniques.”

Schaakmagazine:“That the author has decided to write an original opening book is immediately clear in the first part where he shows that four Tarrasch systems with a poor reputation are not so bad after all.”

IM John Donaldson:“Well suited for all levels of player, but particularly those around 1800 – 2200, who are looking to learn how classical chess is played. Bezgodov’s work is ideally suited to do this, not only through its well-annotated games but also the many exercises the author provides.”